Tim Bouchard (aka Bleeding Heart’s Melody) is an acoustic emo songwriter and former member of the emo band “Curbside All-Stars”. He cites his influences as Dashboard Confessional, and Chris Carrabba’s influence is present everywhere on this CD, from lyric type to style of playing to vocal style.

This, his second EP, has both lyrical hallmarks of an emo cd: songs about girls, and more songs about girls. His lyrics are deeper than that though. They show a deep sense of discontent with what is, and the pain of waiting for something else to come. This is best shown on “Epilogue 54”, the culminating track in order, but not in mood. This cd is built very well mood-wise…It starts off slow and builds to a climax in “December Lies”, then slows down in “Epilogue 54”.

The style of playing is reminiscent of Dashboard Confessional, but then, what white guy with an acoustic guitar isn’t compared to Dashboard. It’s pretty good, and he does one thing DC has never done: use two guitars. He uses one as a ditty player, and the other as a chord player, and it sounds good.

The big problem with this CD is the vocals. They are high and a bit whiny, but that’s fine. The problem lies in the ambition of some of these lines. Some of them are too high, too long, or in a bad range for him, and they just sound off. It detracts from the overall experience. I think that it was just that one performance though….he most likely fell victim of the low-budget means, high budget ideas problem that all indies fight. On a last note, he has a penchant for long songs, turning just 4 songs into 23 minutes worth of music. To his credit, only one track gets repetitive: The 7 minute long epic “The Hidden Truth”.

Fans of Acoustic Emo will like this cd. It’s a good effort, and worth the money. To people who aren’t fans of it, it’d be a mixed bag….I’d try it out first. One leg in before the other…. 6.5 out of 10.